Rich Baseball laughing all the way to the bank
The civic leaders of Wichita, Kansas have got be complete and utter morons.
First, they allow their AA baseball team, the Wichita Wranglers, to be shipped off to Springdale, Arkansas after the 2007 season. This despite the fact that they had a lease that ran for two more seasons, and that the lease also allowed the city the first right of refusal to buy the team for fair market value before allowing its relocation. The sat like deer caught in headlights and the franchise is now packing and moving.
Now comes news that the city has bought Rich Baseball’s remaining asset in Wichita, the National Baseball Congress, which is essentially an annual college baseball tournament that draws approximately 80,000 fans each season. The dirty little secret here is that most of the tickets are given away and crowds for this event have been declining in recent seasons.
And what did Wichita taxpayers shell out for this “asset”? A whopping $1-million! That’s right..not a team, not a franchise, a cool million for a tournament and a name.
Helloooooooooo idiots!!! If you suckers had not stepped up, do you really think that Rich Baseball would have kept a staff in place to operate this event? Basically the Wichita Wranglers front office was in charge of the tournament, and with the team packing, they would have had to set up a totally separate management team to keep the NBC in place.
Wichita, you had the upper hand in these negotiations, and you totally blew it. Perhaps this event was profitable in the past, but with the big million dollar bill you now need to amortize, you guys are now totally screwed.
Enjoy your last month of AA baseball in your city, you morons!
keller Says:August 5th, 2007 at 12:44 am
well…it only takes 20,000 fans generating $50 IN tax revenue during their stay to generate a mill. Buffalonians are notoriously short sighted….this article is no exception.
Andrew Kulyk Says:August 5th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Thank you Keller for the cheery post and all the love you send.
In my “short sightedness”, I’ve only been following this story for a bit over a year, when I did a full column on this topic for Artvoice back in July of 2006, and interviewed by phone the Mayor of Wichita, the GM of the Wranglers and their media relations coordinator who quit in disgust over his team’s imminent move to Arkansas.
Your math here is a bit fuzzy, considering that most of the ducats are freebies and this event doesn’t attract a lot of people who fill hotel rooms and stay a while.
And just to further prove my point.. go to wichitathunder.com. The knuckleheads in Wichita are touting a team that DOESN’T EVEN EXIST!
keller Says:August 7th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
hey man…nothing but love. I’m sure the people of Witchita appreciate you looking out for them. God knows us Buffalonians are a savy business bunch and they could use our help.
I wonder if their local rag ever wrote an article about how much lost tax revenue Buffalo has flushed down the drain by keeping ‘CanalSide’ a den of parking lots, construction fences and Dick Lippes lawsuits for the past 30 years?